[W126 Coupe] Driving Lights

[mramay at att.biz]

Richard,
The idea of a relay and larger wiring is excellent, but.... I've been
running 80/100 H4's for several years now (for off road purposes only) with
no difficulties. It would be brighter with larger wire but I'm too lazy
(for now). 

One major caveat - the 100w bulbs will obviously pull MUCH higher current
than the stock 65w high beam bulbs. Make sure ALL electrical connections
are clean and bright, and you absolutely must put in four new (preferably
copper based) fuses into the headlight circuits in the engine compartment
fuse box. Any resistance from corrosion/age/whatever causes heat. Increase
the current flow, increase the heat, potentially to the point of
catastrophic failure (smoke, fire, melting of expensive things).

Be Bright!
Mike R.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Shayegan, Richard rishayegan at davidson.edu
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:57:19 -0400
To: mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com
Subject: RE: [W126 Coupe] Driving Lights


I wouldn't recommend 100w bulbs on the stock 16 gauge wiring. I would
run new 12 guage wires (not running from the switch but have the switch
control a relay) before going to 100w. Going to a relay will give you
brighter light even with the exact same bulbs btw.
Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com
[mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com] On Behalf Of
Mdefran at earthlink.net
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 12:30 PM
To: mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com
Subject: [W126 Coupe] Driving Lights

Since you are interested in not hitting kangaroos at night, might I
suggest a couple of different options.

1) You probably already have euro headlights on the beast. If not, that
would be step one.
2) If you have euro's already, you might try changing the bulb to a
higher wattage bulb. I run 80w low and 100w highs and can light up the
Mojave desert at night. Higher wattage than that are available, but
certain wiring mods must be done to accomodate the wattage. Somewhere in
our archives is discussion on the mod.
3) Increase the wattage of the fog light  bulb to 100w. This will at
least fill in the area between the bumper and the headlights. I don't
think I would go past 100w in the fogs as it gets pretty warm down there
unless you want to rig something to dissipate heat.
4) Lastly some monster driving light that has been discussed here in the
last day or so.

Good Luck,

Mark D.
84 & 91 SEC's


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